


Dear Mollie

by PennineLass



Series: Jo's Biggest Challenge [4]
Category: Chalet School - Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:42:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24294538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PennineLass/pseuds/PennineLass
Summary: Jack writes a letter to his sister.This works better as a stand-alone story as it repeats some of what has happened in Parts I & II.
Series: Jo's Biggest Challenge [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1752544





	1. Chapter 1

Dear Mollie

By receiving this letter, you’ll know I’m safe. So much has happened since I last wrote to you, that I’m not entirely sure where to start. I suppose at the beginning would be a good idea. I’ve no doubt that your mathematical mind would prefer the whole thing in chronological order.

As you would have heard on the news, Hitler walked into Austria and declared Anschluss in March. Just before this happened, Jem dropped a bombshell. The school was to be moved up to the Sonnalpe and everyone had to pitch in and help out. Every time we called down there, we brought a carload of things up until there was only furniture to remove during the half term holiday. 

It was strange having the whole school so close when they came back after half term. There were still a large number of girls there at that time, though we knew from Herr Marani that parents had received letters from the Gestapo stating that their children should be removed and sent to Austrian and German schools as soon as possible. For a few weeks we were left in peace. We’d had a couple of official visits from the local Gestapo, but none of them were overly interested at that point. It was just before the school broke up for Easter that the first thing happened, I suppose.

The older girls were quite upset about what was happening, and understandably so. Their world up until then had been relatively simple and friendships were still very important to them. What they then did was something which we should never have allowed. They made a Peace League. A lovely idea in principle and I sincerely hope those who signed remember the reasons for it in the coming years. I should never have agreed that going on a picnic to hide it was a good idea; however, I was persuaded and took the consequences. 

The group consisted of myself, Jo, Hilary Burn, Jeanne le Cadoulec, Evvy, Corney and Robin. Jo was well on the way back to full health by this time and, as it was my day off, I could make sure she didn’t overdo it. I’d been spending a lot of my free time with her anyway and thought nothing of accompanying them for a picnic. 

I’m sure you know that I’ve cared for Jo as more than a friend for a few years, now. When she began pushing me away the other summer, I honestly thought I’d done something to offend her, though I had no idea what. We’d spent a lot time together until then, going walking and occasionally into the local towns if the weather was bad. Suddenly, she didn’t seem to want to know anymore and she kept producing excuses whenever I asked her out. It was so unlike Jo to be so distant and formal and I couldn’t understand what I had done to be so thoroughly rebuffed. When she was finally admitted to the Sanatorium, I put two and two together, and it was a huge shock. I couldn’t understand how Jem had missed the signs when they lived under the same roof. Her admittance explained the reason why she’d been pushing me away, though I was still uncertain if I was correct in that assumption at first. It wasn’t until I’d spent an hour talking with her late one night, that I realised that I had been right.

Mollie, it was awful having to watch her go through it all and I hated being in the position of doctor to her. She was such a gregarious person and the enforced isolation was something she’d never had to endure before. You know how she’s always been friends with the whole world, and then she suddenly found herself isolated from everything in more ways than one. Complete bedrest is exactly what it says. You aren’t allowed to even read or write letters at first, simply because the movement of your arms make your lungs work harder. Imagine Jo having to go through that. She’s such a bookworm and most of her friends were living away by then, so her isolation was even more complete as the two things she loved were forbidden to her. I found her almost in tears that night, and it was then that I realised that she needed a friend, someone who would just listen to her and not judge her actions. She confessed her reason for hiding away from me that summer was that she was scared of the consequences when she couldn’t shake the cough she’d developed after a pretty severe chest cold. You remember when she came down with pleuro-pneumonia after falling though the ice one winter? Well, it had left her chest even weaker than it already was and as much as we’d warned her she needed to avoid catching cold, she then came down with one and it was the catalyst in the end. 

I digress, anyway. Getting back to the picnic, we walked to a shelf which is seldom visited simply because the path is so bad. Halfway along it is a boulder which you need to climb up before you can continue along the path. Having managed to climb it without any incidents (a miracle considering that we had both Evvy and Corney in our party), we discovered that we were being followed. We’d had a strange encounter earlier with a local woman and her son and it turned out that it was the boy who was following us. Once we’d spotted him, Hilary came up with the bright idea that we should have a game of hide and seek so he would lose the trail and the document could still be safely hidden. Of course, this didn’t go entirely to plan and turned into both a cause for worry and also joy.

Whilst Jo was seeker, Robin and Hilary went to hide the document. The trouble was that Hermann, the little boy who had been following us, must have spotted it sticking out of Robin’s pocket. He followed them, though they probably heard him and thought better of hiding it since it wasn’t found. The trouble was that they also decided that they needed to find another way out of the cave which had been chosen. I’m sure you can imagine what happened next. Jo couldn’t find them and nearly landed herself back in the Sanatorium thanks to her thoroughness and haste. As it was, she had enough sense to come back and alert the rest of us about what had happened. Since she was now the only person who knew the location of where the document was to be hidden, I had no choice but to get her to show me so I could check for myself. Once I was satisfied that they were no longer around, I surmised that the best thing would be to go back home and raise the alarm if they hadn’t already arrived back. Hilary is a sensible girl and I suspected that she would head home somehow.

By the time the rest of us reached home, Jo was completely and utterly exhausted both physically and with worry. When we were greeted with the news that Hilary and Robin had arrived back a couple of hours earlier, she fainted. When she finally came round, I think we probably both gave Madge a shock as she certainly left the room with some speed. I’d suspected that Jo had finally changed her outlook on life a few weeks previously, but, had been content to let her come to terms with her future in her own time. You know how she’d always been determined to stay single and had no interest in growing up. I think her months in the Sanatorium had caused her to see life in a new light, and odd things she had recently done and said had made me realise that she had begun to grow up at last. The consequence of that picnic and the cause of Madge’s hasty retreat was that Jo stated that she didn’t know what she’d do without me. I’m sure you can guess the ending of this part of the tale. I proposed to her that evening and she said yes!

How I wish I could leave this letter at this point and just post it to you. I haven’t been in touch since the beginning of the year and it’s now July. So far, I’ve only told you what happened before the school broke up for Easter. I can see this letter is going to cost me a small fortune to post to you out in New Zealand. I wish you were closer than the other side of the world, Mollie. It still seems so strange that we aren’t living in the same country anymore. It’s time I was going to visit Jo, now, so I’ll pause here and continue later when I get back. I’ll explain more about what happened and why I’m visiting Jo at all, as it’s all intertwined and I don’t want to confuse the chronology now I’ve started.


	2. Chapter 2

I’m back now, and have nothing planned for this evening, so I can continue writing this. You probably don’t really want all the gory details, but, I’m afraid you’re probably going to get them anyway. It helps just being able to write them all down as well as giving me space to try and understand what we’ve just been through. 

The next couple of weeks after that picnic were pretty uneventful. I was busy working since the Sanatorium was short-staffed and Jo had been confined to her bed as she recovered from her exhaustion. Once she was back up and about, we spent a morning in Spärtz so I could propose properly with a ring. After we got back and I’d gone on to work, the trouble began again. Two Gestapo officers arrived at Die Rosen demanding the people who had been on the picnic. Luckily, Jem happened to be at home at the time and could prevent them from taking Jo or any of the girls since they’re all under twenty-one. I wasn’t so lucky. They came to the Sanatorium and insisted that I accompany them to their offices in Innsbruck, regardless of the fact that I was in the middle of a shift and had some pretty ill patients to deal with. They wanted me to go immediately, even though I needed to find someone to cover me. Luckily, there was another doctor on call in the building, so I was able to give him a very quick update on my patients and ask him to ring Jem and explain the situation before they marched me out to their car.

That was an awful week, Mollie. They left me alone in a cell in some obscure building in Innsbruck. There was a bedstead and a pot in the corner and that was all. I was left there with no contact with anyone for two days. I was given food and water once a day. By the time I was removed from there and actually questioned, I was struggling from the lack of food. The questioning wasn’t pleasant either. They were determined they wanted to try and pin something on me, despite the fact that I continued to state that there was nothing untoward about the picnic and they were relying on the evidence of a seven year old boy who was known to make up stories. I’d already worked out that I must keep to that one sentence if I was to get back out that place alive. I knew that Jem would have contacted the local consulate and be trying to get me out of there, but I had no idea what was happening as they continued to ask questions, trying to catch me out somehow. The questioning seemed to last for days, though it was probably only hours. They threatened me with all sorts of unprintable things, but I refused to give any other information. I have no idea if that was wise or stupid, now I look back. 

Eventually, they flung me back into the cell once more, practically knocking me out as I hit the bedstead from the force of the shove. I was locked in there for another three days in the same fashion. Then suddenly, the door was opened and I was told that I was free to go. I didn’t wait to see if they would change their mind. I collected my jacket and staggered out, following the officer who had released me to the reception area. I was met by the local consul and taken to a hotel first, before being handed my train fare and told to keep my head down or, better still, leave the country. I went back to the Sonnalpe and my job. I understood how narrow my escape had been and I had no wish to repeat that week again. I should have collected Jo and left by train as soon as I arrived back, but, things never go to plan do they?

A couple of months later, I was working when Jo elected to accompany Nell Wilson and a few members of the school on a trip to Spärtz. I was surprised that they allowed the trip in the first place when I think about it, now. I knew nothing of what had happened until evening. I had arranged to have dinner at Die Rosen and was planning to ask Jo if she would like a trip to England to visit home. She’d mentioned a few times that it would be nice for us to visit Pretty Maids so I’d spoken to Jem about going before I became a scapegoat and was arrested again. He’d agreed with me and thought taking Jo was a good idea as it would mean she was safely out of the country.

When I arrived at Die Rosen that evening, I was surprised to be told that Jo wasn’t back and that they’d heard reports of a mob riot happening in Spärtz. When Jo still hadn’t appeared after dinner, we were all anxious. None of the others had arrived at school either, so everyone was worrying about what was happening. Just as we’d finished dinner, a thundering knock came at the door and the Gestapo were there, demanding Jo. Of course we denied that she was there and that we knew nothing of her whereabouts. Both statements were correct at that time. I stayed out of the conversation as much as I could, well aware that I was already known to them. Jem eventually managed to get rid of them and we finally relaxed slightly. It wasn’t for long. Around midnight, Robin reappeared with Herr Borkel from the Gasthaus in Spärtz. 

The tale they told us was hair-raising to say the least. Robin was really upset by the events which had happened in the town that afternoon and was convinced that it was all her fault. Madge hastened to reassure her and took her off to bed, leaving Jem and I looking at each other. We knew then that everyone in that party to Spärtz needed to flee before the Gestapo found them. Just as we were debating what to do, another arrival caught us off-guard. This time it was Daisy Venables, Jem’s niece. She was escorted by one of the cowherds from the higher shelf and she was crying her heart out. We thanked the cowherd and tipped him lavishly for bringing her back to us safely, before Jem began to extract what had happened from her, very gently. 

I’m sure you’re cursing me at the moment for not giving you those details. I can imagine you now, dying to shake me and tell me to get on with it. 

It appears that when they were having Kaffee in Spärtz, Robin had seen a commotion outside in the square and immediately fled to the aid of an old couple who were being chased for their lives through the town. She managed to stop them getting caught then, though at great risk to herself and the rest of the group who had instinctively followed her outside. The old couple were Herr and Frau Goldmann. He was the local jeweller and regularly had Jo’s watch in for repairs. I wish I could say that they’d survived, but I can’t. The mob went to their house later that evening and killed them both, simply for being Jewish. 

As for Jo and the others, Daisy told us that Vater Johann, the parish priest, helped them. He took them into the church and pushed them into a passage under the altar before closing the door on them, leaving them in the pitch blackness and with no other option other than to follow the passage. It turned out that the passage led them back up to the cave above the Sonnalpe where we’d had that picnic just a couple of months previously. Once Jem had extracted this story he took her upstairs and left her in the tender care of her mother.

It was a busy few hours after that. Jem departed to locate the others on the mountainside and warn them that they couldn’t come back to the Sonnalpe, whilst I went home to pack and get ready to join the others on what would turn out to be a journey to save our lives. To say that I was scared would be an understatement, Mollie. I was absolutely petrified. We were going to actively help fugitives escape from the Gestapo, the majority of who were under eighteen. I had no idea how we were going to carry out this plan as I packed my things ready for Jem to send home for me. The whole situation was absurd when I think about it, now. It’s something you wouldn’t dream of ever happening, except in the most thrilling of spy novels.

I’ve just noticed how late it is. I really should attempt to get some sleep if I’m not to collapse myself. At the moment, I’m just aiming for completing one day at a time until we’re finally home again. That’s the only way I can see things at the moment as I have to be strong for Jo. She’s in a mess, Mollie, and I just hope she survives it all after this. I can’t see my life without her in it after all we’ve been through. I’ll continue tomorrow, before I go visit Jo again.


	3. Chapter 3

I have an hour or so spare so I’ll continue on. I had to go into town this morning to buy a few things I needed. Frau von Hessel has been so nice to me. She insisted I stay here with her until we can finally leave for England. She’s the aunt of the Mensches and turned out to be our refuge. Still is for me until I hear from Jem. I still don’t know if he’s made it out of Austria safely. 

Once I’d packed, I put on some Tyrolean clothes to make me look less obvious and returned to Die Rosen to collect Robin and say my goodbyes. Jem had just returned from his trek to find the others and had called in to speak Gottfried Mensch on his way back. The group were all pretty much okay, though very shocked and scared from the events they’d witnessed that afternoon and the walk up the mountainside in a pitch black tunnel. Jo wasn’t so good. Jem told me that she was already struggling for breath and he’d had to give her some painkillers to help. They’d come up with a plan to try and somehow contact the King in Belsornia to see if he would take them in as refugees. I had no doubt that he would have done, had it been safe for us to stay in the area for long enough. The trouble was that I knew that staying in the vicinity of the Tiernsee was dangerous. The Gestapo were on the look-out for all of us. 

We knew that the school would be forced to close in the next few days and everyone would be sent back to their respective countries. Jem also knew that he needed to give up the Sanatorium which he had built up over the past seven years. He was determined to try and get some compensation out the Nazis for handing over control to them so he knew he wouldn’t leave at once. He had already booked tickets to England for the rest of his family and he would follow as soon as he could. They all left in the conventional way, via train through Switzerland and France. That route wasn’t an option for the group on the mountainside, Robin, Gottfried and I. We ended up making a journey which lasted over a week and was dangerous in the extreme. 

I agreed to meet the others in Umfert, where Gottfried knew of a barn we could use for a few hours without too much risk of discovery. It was around three in the morning by this time and I’d had no sleep. I collected Robin and we set off down the path to the Tiernsee, hoping to walk round to the path down to Spärtz before many people who might recognise us were up and about. A thick fog had descended over the area during the night and we were hopeful as we walked around the lake path. Then a couple of the local Gestapo agents suddenly loomed out of the mist and asked us for directions. I’m fluent in German, but I’ve never managed to pick up much of the local dialect and that’s when the first problem occurred. I shook my head in response, hoping that they would just move on, but one of them glanced at Robin and recognised her. As he gasped I knew I had to do something quickly or we’d all be apprehended before we’d even got away. I grabbed their heads and knocked them together as hard as I could, hoping to stun them enough to make it far enough away before they could get back and set up search parties. Then we ran. When Robin stumbled, I just picked her up and continued on, thankful for the fog and that I knew my way around the lakeside well enough to make it onto the path without any further incident. We had to stop there until I regained my breath, but we soon moved on, eventually making it to Umfert mid-afternoon.

Once we had found the others, we joined them in the barn where we allowed Robin to rest for an hour or so before we had to move on. We knew we couldn’t stay around and Gottfried was anxious to be moving after he’d heard our tale. Once everywhere was tidy and we’d removed almost all traces of ourselves, we set off into the forest. As soon as we began to walk, I could tell Jo was going to struggle. Gottfried had deliberately set the pace slow to enable everyone to keep up since we were all tired from the lack of sleep. I think my arm was what enabled Jo to go so far that first day. She was determined not to show that she was already finding it difficult to keep up and valiantly continued on despite the pain she was obviously enduring. She pretty much collapsed into a heap when we stopped for the night. Both Gottfried and I knew that she wasn’t going to get through this journey unscathed. She’d only been out of the Sanatorium for the past ten months and what we were doing was something which she should never have attempted under normal circumstances. She had already set herself back a little when we had the picnic and lost Hilary and Robin, now, she would have been looking at being admitted again under normal circumstances, and we were only one day into a walk which turned out to be a week long.

That journey was awful, Mollie. We had barely enough food to feed us all and couldn’t risk buying too much as we passed through villages in case we were noticed and betrayed. A couple of times we skirted around the edges to try and avoid detection. On one occasion, Jo and Hilary were almost caught and we had to move on rapidly. This was a couple of days before we reached the border and if it hadn’t been for me, Jo would have collapsed completely then. As it was, the tuberculosis returned from the haste we’d had to make. I went back to find her when she dropped behind the following day and discovered her in a heap on the floor, coughing uncontrollably. Jo knew she was having a relapse and tried to stay away from everyone as best she could in the circumstances. The complaints of aches and pains from the others were nothing compared to Jo’s discomfort. When Jem had given her painkillers that first night, he had handed her the bottle to take with her. I’d given her them at regular intervals until they finally ran out. That last day was agony for her. When we reached the border we had to cross open meadowland in a place where the guards are armed and not averse to shooting anyone crossing illegally.

We all made it over the border, though Jo almost collapsed before we reached cover. Somehow, we made it into the trees on the Swiss side where she could try and recover a little before we moved on. Unfortunately it took both Gottfried and I to get her to her feet and then she was unable to walk any further without spasms of coughing racking her body. Somehow I got her to the road and we managed to persuade a passing cart driver to give us a lift to Gottfried’s aunt’s home.

I think everyone was relieved when we finally arrived there. After a hot bath and something substantial to eat, we all went to bed, glad to be able to sleep under covers and on a mattress. If only I could just tell you that we all slept through without any disturbance. I’m sure the majority did. For Jo, Gottfried and I, it was a different story. 

I have no idea how long I had been sleeping for before the screaming began. At first it didn’t register as I was so tired from the journey we’d just undertaken. It eventually reached my consciousness, though, and I woke realising that it was Jo who was screaming. She was in the throes of the most horrific nightmare and it took both Gottfried and I to wake her safely. That’s when the haemoptysis happened. Seeing the blood and her terror was awful. She had no idea what was happening to her and I knew all too well that she was seriously ill with tuberculosis. Gottfried rang for an ambulance immediately and she was admitted to the local hospital that night. 

It was awful, Mollie. She was so terrified that they had to sedate her for a few days when she was admitted in order to prevent her from waking the other patients with her screaming. I have no idea what they’re doing for her as they don’t keep her notes in her room. She’s unable to rest properly because she’s still worrying that the Gestapo are going to come and find us, despite me telling her that they won’t invade Switzerland. I’m visiting her each day in the hospital to try and show her that I love her and I’m never going to leave her alone. It’s hard though. I’ve never been in the position of relative before and I’m finding it hard to adjust to sitting with her and not treating her. I hope that my just being with her for those couple of hours each day is helping, but, I honestly don’t know whether it is. She’s so tired that she spends most of the time sleeping when I’m with her. I know that she should do that, but, I also think that it’s the only time she feels safe enough to sleep as I’m there to wake her and reassure her if she does have a nightmare. I never realised how much her imagination spiralled out of control until now. She’s unable to control her thoughts as they come and go and when she is awake, she’s struggling to put them into words. All I can do is listen to her and reassure her that she’s not going mad; it’s just reaction to the strain we’ve all been under since Nazis walked into Austria. 

I’m also beginning to worry about Jem as I’ve not heard back from him yet. I hope he managed to make it safely out of Austria. We need to get Jo back to England somehow and ideally, he’s the best person to be able to sort that out. The doctors here know I’m her fiancé and won’t allow me to deal with her medically whilst she’s in hospital here. The trouble is that I can see she’s not resting properly. I know that if we manage to get her back to England, she’s looking at the next year at least in a Sanatorium. I know it’ll be hard to have to be her doctor again after all we’ve just been through, but, at least I’ll know what we’re doing for her. I hate being unable to help her, especially since she’s not in a Sanatorium so isn’t receiving the specialist care she needs. 

I need to go, shortly. It’s almost visiting time again. Hopefully, Jo will be a shade stronger today, though I know it’s unlikely. I ought to get this into the post for you as well, so you know that I’m okay. I’m sorry it’s not a happy letter, but it’s helped me a lot to just be able to put what I’ve just been through into words. I can understand Jo’s need to write, now. Hopefully, the next time I write, it will be with better news and we’ll both be back on English soil at least. Let me know your news won’t you?

Take care.

Love

Jack xxx

PS

Just back from the hospital and a letter has arrived from Jem. He’s made it out of Austria safely and is coming to assess Jo as soon as he can. If she’s fit to travel, he’ll take her home with him. I’ll let you have my new address as soon as I know it, myself. 

J x


End file.
